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Portraying the American government as the Great Satan for decades and then suddenly sitting down and having bilateral negotiations with them was never going to be easy for the Iranian leadership.

And it was bound to raise the ire of those on the right side of Iranian politics who for years had been told that Iran needs to stay away from having direct contact with the US, because it “can not be trusted”.

“some of what happened in New York was not proper, because the U.S. government is not trustworthy, is self-important and illogical, and breaks promises,”.

The international community does not have much reason to be alarmed as Khamenei’s audience for this statement was domestic, most probably his loyal hard-line conservative supporters. He is trying to keep them on his side at what must be difficult times within the regime.

Khamenei does have the final word on all major decisions, but Iran does have domestic politics. Another reason why its comparison to North Korea is highly inaccurate.

2 Responses to “Khamenei plays domestic politics”

Obama said the world must test whether Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is serious about pursuing a diplomatic resolution to international concerns over its nuclear aspirations. He said the U.S. won’t take a bad deal from Iran and will make sure that anything agreed to can be verified. Obama said Rouhani has staked his position on the idea that he can improve relations with the rest of the world, and has been saying a lot of the right things. He said the question the world is waiting for an answer to is whether Rouhani can follow through.

-Obama in his UNGA address said that world community must accept the reality of Israel, and Mr. Rouhani in his speech before Foreign Relation Council in NY implicitly recognized Israel as a ‘state’ in Int’l community when said Israel sould join NPT. This is what mad Khamnei mad and sad, and that’s what he is referring to when he says “some of what happened in New York was not proper, because the U.S. government is not trustworthy, is self-important and illogical, and breaks promises,”. Mr. Rouhani and his foreign minister, Zarif, understand the political/diplomatic language much better than Khamnei. They got the message that Obama agreed to negotitiate with Iran on Nuclear program providing the Islamic regime leave Israel alone. That’s what khamnei does not understand or does not want to bother itself to understand.